The present invention generally relates to apparatus and methods for use in communications networks. More specifically, the present invention can be utilized to control alert and security functions on a communications system.
It""s good to talk, and the way things are going it has never been easier. Communications have been enormously successful in recent years and we are now living in a highly connected society. With the overwhelming growth of communication networks, there are more communication devices currently in use around the world and the market is growing fast.
The social and cultural consequences of this boom in communications, however are often overlooked and are far reaching in today""s society. One such consequence is the irritation and confusion caused by unanswered alerts from communication devices. Heads turn when a phone rings. Indeed, it is uncommon to work in an open-plan office environment without the ring of someone""s communication device sounding. This distraction of an unanswered communication device can reduce concentration and increase stress among workers. All of these factors reduce productivity significantly. As a result of these factors it is becoming increasingly common for office workers to take work home with them to work more productively in uninterrupted silence.
While it is often possible to manually change security and alert features on a telephone, it is laborious to do so. It also requires forward planning, and therefore requires the setting up of the feature in advance of leaving the area. Indeed, it is often so complicated to activate these features that people do not bother, or even forget how to activate them.
There is one known advanced communication arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,050 issued to W. A. Davidson et al. This utilizes a proximity detector to gather status information to define the presence or absence of a person to a station set without identifying a particular person. However, this arrangement merely detects the presence of any person within the vicinity of a telephone and does not address the problem of identifying the presence a particular person to a communications terminal associated with that person.
There may exist other reasons for automating features of communications terminals and networks, for example, enabling and disabling a terminal according to whether the predetermined user is present or absent. One such use may be of particularly utility in security conscious environments. This may also be useful in an environment in which an owner of a particular communications terminal or connection does not want anyone using it while they are away. This would prevent unauthorized users from making calls from other people""s communications terminals.
It would, therefore, be desirable for a communications system to automatically control features of a terminal or communications network based on the absence or presence of a predetermined user to receive or make calls. It would also be desirable to automate security features of a terminal based on the presence or absence of a predetermined user to a terminal associated with the predetermined user.
In accordance with the present invention, a method and apparatus are provided for controlling an alert function of a communications terminal, the terminal being associated with a pre-determined user for receiving an incoming call over a telecommunications network, the terminal alert function being for presenting to the predetermined user an audible alert of the incoming call.
Additionally, a method and apparatus are provided for enabling or disabling a communications terminal, the terminal being associated with a predetermined user for sending an outgoing call or receiving an incoming call over a telecommunications network.
The presence and absence of the predetermined user is deduced from indeterminate information. Such indeterminate information may come from, for example, monitoring devices connected to the communications network.
An advantage of the alert being controlled according to the presence or absence of the predetermined user is that it can reduce the disturbance caused by the alerts of communication terminals when their user""s are not present to receive incoming calls.